I ordered the 2.7 13" today.. should be here tomorrow. I decided that even if I do get the new iPad, some of the same niggling things were still there.
So.. here was my thinking, now you can tell me how wrong I was to make me second guess. heh. (long post - may bore, may help others in similar circumstance)
Here's what I do..and the train of thought.
What I have, where I'm coming from
- I'm coming from a aluminum 2.4 15" mbp 4 gigs ram, upgraded 320 7200 rpm drive - even with a pretty new battery.. the battery life was not so great.. and speedwise it's showing its age imo
- I have an older quad core windows 7 box as a server with 1920 calibrated screen
Basic daily usage
- I do a fair amount of forum traversing - including a fair amount of posting
- One of the most annoying things about ipad 1 was trying to type coherent cohesive responses with the virtual keyboard, and attach files :/
-Another annoying thing was (man I hate to say this, let me get the flame suit) browsing mma rss feeds - a fair amount of video.
- I travel on single or double night weekend trips locally a bit.. maybe 10 weekend trips a year. with one long trip.
- I move around the house a fair amount
More specific usage.
Photography - lightroom and photoshop. Bear in mind I did a large portion of this with the older mbp - 1440 isn't letting you do much more 'shopping than 1280, both are too small and most of the retouching I do requires 100% view anyway, so I have to scroll about 10% more now, lol. Realistically, one needs a mouse and preferably higher res.
Most of my prelim stuff is handled in lightroom. I go to PS for output sharpening, slight retouches, etc. The stuff that's done in lightroom either happens with the loupe equiv (NR, Sharpening, blemishes, etc) or doesn't require pixel level viewing (gradient, exposure comp, etc)
My server transcodes video when needed... and does a fine job. I have no issue transferring 720p mkv to my bedroom tivos, and it's on all the time. It also serves iTunes, and playon, plus a few other things. I will probably, in the next month, move to an i7 + 8 gb ram in the server.. OR.. buy an imac when they are updated and relegate the server to a headless monster in the corner, I'll cross that bridge in a few.
Why the 13" mbp not air, not 15" etc.
15" - it's getting cumbersome in some situations (lazy bed usage, tray tables, etc) and for the weight increase, I really can't see going with less than the high res matte screen.. which puts it considerably more expensive than the 13" and without too much benefit it seems (for my usage)
With the pinch to zoom gestures I don't find hitting the photography forums to suffer much.. at least for the hour in store. It's pretty fast to zoom out/in.
There aren't all that many benches, but ime, and based on what I saw.. both lightroom and ps are going to benefit more from the mhz than the extra cores (on average). If you look at the benches for ps actions - the 2.7 13" matches the 17" from what I saw. Please feel free to correct me if I am mistaken, I can try to post links.
I have no intentions of gaming or doing any substantial video work. For the odd video project, I can wait the extra time I think.
The macbook air was more money, and slower with a noticably worse screen (for my use) which outweighed the resolution increase.. I just couldn't justify it on my personal account.. if a company was buying and I was jetsetting, I'm on it.
In my photography, I'm carrying a fair amount of gear anyway - so the extra 1.6 lbs isn't making that much of a diff.. and frankly, even with the lower res, it has a lot more to offer.
I may have more to add later.. but for now, it certainly seems like I can forego the speed and expense of the 15 or 17, as it doesn't look to impact much based on what I regularly do..
So.... I think my logic is sound, lol. It seems other photographers are finding roughly the same as myself.. most of them seeing the same benchmarks I guess.. and deciding, we can hook up to a monitor - as we probably want a mouse for photowork anyway.
Queue 'cool story bro'//
So.. here was my thinking, now you can tell me how wrong I was to make me second guess. heh. (long post - may bore, may help others in similar circumstance)
Here's what I do..and the train of thought.
What I have, where I'm coming from
- I'm coming from a aluminum 2.4 15" mbp 4 gigs ram, upgraded 320 7200 rpm drive - even with a pretty new battery.. the battery life was not so great.. and speedwise it's showing its age imo
- I have an older quad core windows 7 box as a server with 1920 calibrated screen
Basic daily usage
- I do a fair amount of forum traversing - including a fair amount of posting
- One of the most annoying things about ipad 1 was trying to type coherent cohesive responses with the virtual keyboard, and attach files :/
-Another annoying thing was (man I hate to say this, let me get the flame suit) browsing mma rss feeds - a fair amount of video.
- I travel on single or double night weekend trips locally a bit.. maybe 10 weekend trips a year. with one long trip.
- I move around the house a fair amount
More specific usage.
Photography - lightroom and photoshop. Bear in mind I did a large portion of this with the older mbp - 1440 isn't letting you do much more 'shopping than 1280, both are too small and most of the retouching I do requires 100% view anyway, so I have to scroll about 10% more now, lol. Realistically, one needs a mouse and preferably higher res.
Most of my prelim stuff is handled in lightroom. I go to PS for output sharpening, slight retouches, etc. The stuff that's done in lightroom either happens with the loupe equiv (NR, Sharpening, blemishes, etc) or doesn't require pixel level viewing (gradient, exposure comp, etc)
My server transcodes video when needed... and does a fine job. I have no issue transferring 720p mkv to my bedroom tivos, and it's on all the time. It also serves iTunes, and playon, plus a few other things. I will probably, in the next month, move to an i7 + 8 gb ram in the server.. OR.. buy an imac when they are updated and relegate the server to a headless monster in the corner, I'll cross that bridge in a few.
Why the 13" mbp not air, not 15" etc.
15" - it's getting cumbersome in some situations (lazy bed usage, tray tables, etc) and for the weight increase, I really can't see going with less than the high res matte screen.. which puts it considerably more expensive than the 13" and without too much benefit it seems (for my usage)
With the pinch to zoom gestures I don't find hitting the photography forums to suffer much.. at least for the hour in store. It's pretty fast to zoom out/in.
There aren't all that many benches, but ime, and based on what I saw.. both lightroom and ps are going to benefit more from the mhz than the extra cores (on average). If you look at the benches for ps actions - the 2.7 13" matches the 17" from what I saw. Please feel free to correct me if I am mistaken, I can try to post links.
I have no intentions of gaming or doing any substantial video work. For the odd video project, I can wait the extra time I think.
The macbook air was more money, and slower with a noticably worse screen (for my use) which outweighed the resolution increase.. I just couldn't justify it on my personal account.. if a company was buying and I was jetsetting, I'm on it.
In my photography, I'm carrying a fair amount of gear anyway - so the extra 1.6 lbs isn't making that much of a diff.. and frankly, even with the lower res, it has a lot more to offer.
I may have more to add later.. but for now, it certainly seems like I can forego the speed and expense of the 15 or 17, as it doesn't look to impact much based on what I regularly do..
So.... I think my logic is sound, lol. It seems other photographers are finding roughly the same as myself.. most of them seeing the same benchmarks I guess.. and deciding, we can hook up to a monitor - as we probably want a mouse for photowork anyway.
Queue 'cool story bro'//
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